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Written by Joe Vaz
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 Duma Key
By Stephen King
Published by:
Hodder &
Stoughton
RRP: R229.95
583p TP
“God punishes us for what we can’t imagine”
Duma Key is about pain, and loss, and death, both metaphorical and literal. It is about how the human spirit is able to come back from places it really has no business coming back from.
Edgar Freemantle’s ‘other life’ ends when a crane reverses into his truck, mashing his body and the truck into a mess of metal and bone. His second life begins several months later as he slowly comes to terms with his broken and shattered form – a hip that will never quite heal, a right arm that no longer exists in this world, but itches like a bitch in the other.
In a bid to avert suicide, his doctor recommends that he get a hobby. The left-handed Edgar takes up drawing, getting a kick out of the fact that the one thing that made his other life difficult is what he’s most grateful for in this one.
Although an incredibly strong piece by King, both in its writing and the scare-factor, Duma suffers from a cynicism and pessimism that has, to date, been more closely associated with King’s alter ego, Richard Bachman.
In truth, it feels like a new beginning. But this ‘reborn’ version of Stephen King is darker and angrier. Lisey and Duma feel like Carrie and The Shining revisited by a writer that has had 40 years of experience to hone his craft to near-perfection, but has also had 40 years to realise that the world is a shithole, and that, often, the darkness wins.
Read alongside Lisey’s Story, it isn’t hard to link the metaphors and surmise that King is drawing on his own experiences after being run down by a van in 2000.
Lisey is about the death of a best-selling writer and how his wife deals with the after-effects. Duma is about the rebirth of Edgar and the discovery that life can go on, albeit different from what came before.
King makes one fatal flaw with Duma Key though. He ups the stakes to such a degree that he quells all hope in the reader – so much so that from a certain point on one really doesn’t want to carry on reading. It’s like watching someone kick a puppy to death and then burst into a stand-up comedy routine – you just don’t feel like playing along anymore.
All in all, Duma Key is probably one of the best books King has published in the last decade or so, but at times it’s so depressing that it is difficult to continue reading. Don;t get me wrong, it is also exquisitely beautiful with incredibly real and rich characters.
From a literary point of view, Stephen King is back on track, producing outstanding work. The blood-freezing scares are there and the book moves at an atypically fast pace. Duma Key takes us back to the days of Salem’s Lot and The Shining and it will keep you up all night. Do not read this book if you’re alone. Don’t read it at night. And under no circumstances read this book if you live near the coast. Of course, if you don’t actually ever want to sleep again…
- Joe Vaz
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